The present invention relates to an optical material suitable for micro optical components such as a thin-film wave guide, a micro lens, a micro prism, etc. used in an optical integrated circuit or the like, and an optical component using the same.
Materials for a lens, a prism, or a thin-film wave guide, which have heretofore been used, include LiNbO.sub.3 having Ti, V, or Ni diffused therein (see R. V. Schmit and I. P. Kaminow, Appl. Phys. Letts, 25 (1974), 458), ZnO deposited by sputtering (see P. K. Tien, Appl. Opt. 10 (1971), 2395) and polymethyl methacrylate. In the case of an inorganic material, the technique concerning the above-mentioned conventional materials requires a vacuum technique such as evaporation or sputtering for formation of a thin film and a micro pattern. In these so-called dry processes, an expensive apparatus and a complicated operation are needed, and formation of a film takes time and hence the productivity is unsatisfactory.
On the other hand, in the case of an organic polymer material, a uniform and good coating film can be obtained by the simple and inexpensive wet painting method. Thus, investigations have been widely made on this material. However, the optical properties are unstable and variation thereof with time is large.
Under such circumstances, an optical material suitable for micro optical components, which is made of a highly stable inorganic material having a high refractive index and a notably high transparency to light having longer wavelengths than those of ultraviolet rays, has been eagerly demanded. Further, it has been eagerly demanded that a coating film can be prepared therefrom by a simple painting method without the need of the vacuum technique.